What God demands is your Repentance, by Deacon Wole Bodunde

After a five weeks serial teaching on the Dangers of Backsliding, the conclusion and summary of the teaching bothers on repentance. The third week of the teaching opened with self-examination of our present stand in the race compared with when we first started. In reference to this self-examination, the man of God said he called his wife to x-ray themselves.  I ventured into it and I experienced an outburst in me, an experience that told me bluntly that I had not made any visible impact, and a matter that appears that it has been a vicious circle all along.

To make progress in Christian life, you must be sincere with yourself. Check what you are inside yourself, right inside your bedroom where nobody sees you.  Let it be based on sincerity and brokenness of heart. Let it be without covering. Jesus Christ, our standard, a man of perfect ministry on earth among men, asked His disciples – “… who do men say that the Son of man is?”

I discovered in the teaching that Christianity is not an emergency adaptation of behaviour; it is not oratory in the delivering of messages or teaching skills. Even preaching, the type that is effective is the one that positively influence our lives. You may appear zealous and people are praising you; but what does God say about you.

The concluding part dwells on repentance. “I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles and they are not, and didst find them false; and thou hast patience and didst bear for my name’s sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have [this] against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” – Revelation 2:2-7

Repentance for the believers is re-embracing the work of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not an arrangement. It is not an issue of adaptation of behaviour with an elaborate systematic plan of action. It is a fundamental rethinking and radical redesigning of your life to bring about dramatic change in your life towards God. It is not the emotions displayed at the call for prayer for forgiveness but a realignment of your spirit, soul and body to God’s.

God’s package of salvation is far beyond forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin is the first instalment of God’s blessing to a repentant soul. God desire us His children. He want to be our father –  …”And I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty” – II Cor. 6:18.

Repentance is making covenant with God. “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” – Ps 50:5. Sacrifice is the central theme of Christianity. The Church is founded upon the bedrock of sacrifice – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…” John 3:16. You must pay a lifelong subscription for being a child of God.

Repentance is dead to the world. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” – Col. 3:3. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” – Col 2:13. A repentant soul will forgo the place of his initials. He will come out of the familiar terrain of sins. He will come out completely and be separated for God. He will engage him/herself in profitable works. He will have the right motives, think God’s thought and share God’s vision. Repentant souls will not allow the world system to overwhelm them. They will be indifferent to same priorities, same interests, and same success syndrome, same old emphasis on treasures and same leisure and pleasure as in the world.

The Bible says – “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” – Rom. 8:10-14  

Finally, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” – Phil. 2:5-8.

Remain blessed- Maranatha